Read: I John 1:1-2:2
Have you ever felt like God was distant? Maybe you had felt particularly close to Him at one point or another, but there have also been moments where He seemed so far away.
There is an old illustration that compares God with the sun. We can feel its presence during a warm summer day, but not so much during the cold winter nights. However, it is not the sun that moved. The earth revolves around the sun and rotates on an axis. When it seems that God is distant, it is us who have turned away from Him.
How do we restore a right relationship with God? The Bible says that there is none who seek Him. No one is righteous, but the Bible also says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So, once we have a relationship with God, we must maintain our fellowship with Him.
Fellowship with God
The introduction to John’s first letter to the Church is an overlay of the introduction to his Gospel narrative. “In the beginning was the word,” and “That which was from the beginning.” “The Word was with God and the Word was God…In Him was life, ” and “This we proclaim to you concerning the Word of Life.” “The light shines in the darkness,” and “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
John assures his readers that he is an authority on these subjects of theology. He sat directly under Jesus’ teaching, he saw Jesus even after the crowds had dissipated. He was the only disciple at the foot of the cross when Jesus died and he had touched the wounds of Jesus after He had risen from the dead.
If John wrote his gospel narrative so that people would believe that Jesus is the Christ, evangelistically, then he has written this letter so that we might have fellowship with God as believers.
God Is Light
The first way to know that we have fellowship with God is by walking in the light. This is the message that John was given from Jesus, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
In the beginning mankind was created in a relationship with God, but then Adam sinned and brought judgement upon all humanity. We are all sinners and our sin separates us from God. How then can we have fellowship with our creator when He is holy and we are not?
The first thing we have to do is recognize our sinful state. We are blind to the truth and need to have Jesus shine the light on our problem. We are all prone to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We may even think that God loves us and isn’t bothered by our sin, but He is. Jesus’ death on the cross demonstrates how serious God takes our sin problem. It is not a small thing.
We don’t see our need for a savior. We have deceived ourselves in thinking that we are okay when we are not. If we persist in denying our sin then we are calling God a liar and denying the work of Christ on the cross.
If we walk in the light, we are allowing the truth to be revealed. This is not a delicate process. The light reveals all of our flaws. It exposes our sin. If we recoil and try to hide our nature, we will only end up lying to ourselves about how bad we really are. Minimizing our problem will only make it worse, but if we confess our sin, God will forgive us and we will be cleansed in the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ.
Christ, Our Propitiation
Walking in the light can feel like we are living under constant scrutiny. Even after accepting the forgiveness of God we continue to sin, and that sin works to drive a wedge between us and God. John draws our attention to the gospel as an encouragement to not sin so that we may share not only in fellowship with God, but also the joy in knowing Christ.
We can rest assured that our sins are forgiven because our savior bore the full weight of God’s wrath and He continues to intercede for us. The love of Jesus, then, should compel us to live in a manner that is worthy of this gospel.
If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will not want to turn away from His love. If we continue to preach the gospel to ourselves, we will understand the price that Christ paid for our sins so that we will want to live for Him. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we will have fellowship with God so that we would not be led astray by the lusts of this world.
Adam Miller is the president and host of Songtime Radio and serves as the pastor of South Chatham Community Church. This article is a condensed version of one of his sermons.